diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index f2d595e..02701a3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -101,7 +101,20 @@ jobs:
           echo "commit subject ok: $subject"
 
   test:
-    name: Julia ${{ matrix.julia-version }} / ${{ matrix.os }}
+    # The name is a fixed string, and deliberately carries no version.
+    #
+    # A branch ruleset matches a required status check by the DISPLAY NAME of the job
+    # that posts it. When that name was `Julia ${{ matrix.julia-version }} / ${{ matrix.os }}`
+    # a pin bump renamed the check, and a renamed check does not report at all -- it
+    # does not fail, it is simply absent, and an absent required check can never be
+    # satisfied. Every pull request would have deadlocked until an admin bypassed the
+    # rule, triggered by nothing more alarming than editing a version number.
+    #
+    # The versions have not been hidden, only moved somewhere that does not double as
+    # an identifier: `strategy.matrix` below, and the `Set up Julia` step's own log.
+    # `test/unit/test_install_pins.jl` asserts that no job name in this file
+    # interpolates anything, so this cannot regress silently.
+    name: Julia tests
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
     # The repository's root .Rprofile sources renv/activate.R, so R started from
     # the checkout auto-activates renv and rewrites the library paths. renv is a
diff --git a/test/unit/test_install_pins.jl b/test/unit/test_install_pins.jl
index 762e4f8..c25c79c 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_install_pins.jl
+++ b/test/unit/test_install_pins.jl
@@ -181,4 +181,26 @@ is_sha256(s) = s isa AbstractString && occursin(r"^[0-9a-f]{64}$", s)
             @test !occursin(pins["tools"][tool]["version"], runs)
         end
     end
+
+    @testset "no job name interpolates a pin" begin
+        ci = YAML.load_file(CI_PATH)
+
+        # A required status check is matched by the DISPLAY NAME of the job that posts
+        # it. `name: Julia ${{ matrix.julia-version }} / ${{ matrix.os }}` therefore
+        # renames the check on every pin bump, and a renamed check does not report at
+        # all -- it does not fail, it is simply absent, and a required check that never
+        # reports can never be satisfied. Every pull request then deadlocks until an
+        # admin bypasses the rule, which is the one outcome branch protection exists to
+        # prevent. The bump that triggers it is a one-line edit to this very file's
+        # subject matter, so the deadlock arrives by way of an ordinary maintenance
+        # change that looks safe.
+        #
+        # Asserting this over EVERY job rather than over the one job we happen to
+        # require today is deliberate: the rule is "a job name is a stable identifier",
+        # and a rule enforced at each door in turn is a rule that a new door escapes.
+        for (id, job) in ci["jobs"]
+            name = get(job, "name", id)
+            @test !occursin("\${{", name)
+        end
+    end
 end